Any one who asks for perfect work of me when I was in any kind of training got my patented 'I'll do it like you want when you resurect a dead person in front of me.' No one is perfect, and when a teacher is so unreal, they are doing it out of spite and to make themselves feel better by hurting another person.

My first quilting teacher was like that - I found this place and a friend who quilts. And you tube. If she is a show me teach me learner you tube may not work for her. Tell her that she might want to just practice on her own, with out the teacher. Otherwise, the teacher might suck all the pleasure out of it for her. I wonder how many others experience this, and if this contributes to LQS closures?

Encourage your sister to keep quilting. No matter how long she quilts, there will always be the "quilt police" that are so insecure in their work that they have to criticize others work. I have been laughed at for not knowing how to use a rotary cutter when I first started quilting about 2 years ago. I went to the LQS to ask someone to show me how to use the cutter. Then I signed up for a class and the same lady was helping with the class and she told everyone in the class that she had a lady come in that couldn't use a rotary cutter and she had to show "her" (me) over and over how to use the cutter. She and everyone in the class laughed hysterically at my "dumbness". Of course the lady didn't remember that I was who she was joking about and poking fun at. So now when the "police" say something stupid to me now, I just look at them and go away laughing. They are so pitiful in their arrogance.
The closest I ever get to perfection is when I am on my knees praying to Jesus as He is Perfection and no one else nor anything...

A friend of mine bought a new sewing machine -- took a class -- broke down in tears -- and put the sewing machine in a closet for 2 years! She brought the machine out a year ago, and with the help of some very kind teachers, she has made some amazing projects! The same holds true in our children's classrooms as well....

That is rough. I can understand as I was treated similar at my beginners class.

that's too bad. My sister just finished teaching her first beginning quilting class - she went over how to check your sewing machine to find 1/4 in seams but also has said emphasized that as long as the quilter is happy with the work - that's the truly important thing.

Teaching is an art just like quilting. Rare people have a gift for doing both well!

All wonderful comments and suggestions for beginning quilters. I am going to teach a beginning Machine Quilting Class for our guild beginning in February, and will take your comments and suggestions to heart. I mainly want to give them the basics and techiniques that I had to learn by myself. I know none of us are perfect and have expressed to guild members that we DO NOT point out our mistakes. We sew & quilt for the fun and creativiity and the joy it brings us.

Tell her to join this forum and we will be nice to her while she is learning :)

Even if they want her to sew a scant 1/4 inch seam they should "show" her how to go about it. That is why I like the "Dummies" books. They assume that you don't know even the smallest of things or how to do them and then teach you the 'how's and why's' of what you should do.

Tell her not to take a lot of notice about seams, as long as they are all the same. Nothing that is handmade is perfect, that is the beauty of it. I agree with DebraK not everyone can teach.